Thanks, Overmod.
It is certainly involved; I have not read it in full yet (it’s close to my lunch time). I doubt that the individual railroad passes were that involved.
Forsooth, how will I ever be able to go on![:^)]
I love trains and train travel, but flying is much cheaper, so I’ll fly from now on.
Jim K
I have to wonder whether this is associated with the Congressional ‘mandate of profitability’.
Every dollar Amtrak ‘leaves on the table’ by providing an actual discount is a dollar that could have gone to reduce a “deficit”. On the other hand, not providing enough juicy-sounding discounts will fail to motivate potential butts to buy tickets. So make your Web-site discounts panel look really, really long, and really good in the language and pictures, and keep 'em rolling in … if you lose them on the back end, aw shucks!
But there’s still the advantage that you can go into a Congressional committee hearing and point out with a straight face that you did everything possible to reduce ‘that part’ of the Amtrak deficit. And even justify the strategy above as ‘incenting’ (to use a fine Wisconsin phrase) the maximum number of potential marks while simultaneously diligently arranging for the Government to actually ‘lose’ as little as possible.
I wonder if there are performance awards for the best combination of offering attractive-sounding things with one hand and ensuring minimum actual ‘fulfillment’ with the other. I’d also think it’s a safe bet that there are people in Amtrak legal who are pretty well compensated for carefully ensuring that there is full and fastidious compliance with the actual ‘letter’ of the fine print, as with circ/promo at Time Warner on mass mailings and sweepstakes offers.
Makes you yearn a bit for the ‘good old days that never were’ where incentives to buy would be made with a real smile and a desire to establish ongoing return custom. Much of what Amtrak does at present along these lines appears to be anything but.
Depends on when you fly. I always fly first class for leisure over the holidays because a good portion of the time the plane is late and we are just sitting there waiting for a gate to open or some other nonsense (almost as bad as getting stuck behind the Metra Express). I have long legs and coach is unbearable for me longer than an hour flight.
Christmas flight in September was more expensive than RT on the Texas Eagle from Dallas to Chicago. So Amtrak landed the ticket.
Not really so different than the argument going on in retailing 30-40 years ago: when to offer promotions and price-off sales. It culminated in clearance sales before Christmas and increased sales while greatly reducing sustainable markups. It’s a balancing act.
But this is different.
Look at the discussion we had earlier, about ‘marginal pricing’ relative to actual demand. Would it be ‘immoral’ for Amtrak to run pricing up (and perhaps make discounts more inapplicable) in timeslots or services that are either near-filled or expected to be? I’d argue ‘of course not’ even though there’s a certain amount of mercenary zeal involved in the idea. (In fact I’d argue that not to do so, which in essence would mean that the early birds who could afford to lock up tickets and space sufficiently in advance would get all the worms, and anyone else has to ride standby or see about the bus, is unfair in a different way.) I see no despair in adjusting to ‘supply and demand’ so that it just closes … the flip side of this being standby allocation so that the last seat on as many segments as possible is sold without leaving anyone seatless or bedless as applies.
But this is a form of bait and switch, where you’re attracted by discounts and then repeatedly and somewhat viciously nickel-and-dimed down. That’s not the same thing as running a Christmas sale with loss leaders, or the kinds of promotion with coupons that ‘stack’ with discounts at your local grocery store that’s savvy about human nature. I’d point out that the perception that a company ‘cares about you’ has been a principal concern in “marketing and promotion” since well before the age of Elbert Hubbard … and it is just as important to avoid the perception that a company essentially doesn’t give a crap after the customer is in the
At the moment the only sure fire discount from Amtrak is to join the Railroad Passengers Association. You can join on line at Railpassengers.org or call 202-408-8362
I knew they had raised the age for seniors from 62 to 65, but did not affect me as I was already 65. Never belonged to AAA but did hear that one was discontinued too. They did restore the military one after a lot of complaints. I use Amtrak Guest rewards charge card and accumulate points to redeem for free or discounted trips. They also send email surveys that I answer and get points for those also.
Amtrak has a lot of discounts.
Children 2 through 12 ride half-price very day. Infants under 2 rides free.
Seniors get a 10 percent discount on rail fares, but the discount does not apply to premium class services.
Active due U.S. military personnel, as well as their spouses and their dependents, save 10 percent on their rail fare.
Veterans of the U.S. military save 10 percent.
Adults passengers with a disability qualify for a 10 percent discount on their rail fare. Passengers with a disability travelling on Downeaster trains (Boston, MA to Portland, ME) are eligible for a 50% discount. Child passengers with a disability are eligible for the everyday 50% child discount plus an additional 10% off the discounted child’s fare, regardless of the service on which they travel.
Rail
AFAIK, while the senior discount is not available (never was?) on the Auto Train, the NARP discount is and was.
Yes, I know that it’s no longer “NARP”, but, similarly, that really tall building in Chicago, to me, will always be the Sears Tower, even though it isn’t.
Pete
I love it when a man of his experience and skill quotes something like this without either reading the fine print or actually observing the actual discounts being offered.
Suggest he do so, whether or not he thinks he’s too busy to read such minutiae, and report back on, for example, the actual ‘children’s discount’ if, as the language implies, there are multiple children riding.
The objective was to summarize the different discounts offered by Amtrak.
If one wants the details for each class of discount, they can be found on Amtrak’s webpage or by calling the company. In some cases, i.e. group travel, one has to call Amtrak for the details.
Well stated, Overmod ! Summaries are worthless if the correct information is omitted, distorted or misleading.
I don’t see alot of distortions ! He just stated thier we’re discounts.
Read my post more carefully. Note the word ‘or’ not ‘and.’ The summary omits key conditions, as Overmod points out.